


Unlikely Encounter

by dropped_my_prussiant



Category: One Piece
Genre: Each chapter will have about 700-800 words, I started writing this 4 years ago and its just been sat in my tumblr drafts, LawLu - Freeform, Luffy thinks Law's attractive though I mean;; Can't blame him, M/M, Merfolk AU, This is more of a friendship type thing than a romantic fic I'm sorry, Un-Beta'ed, so I thought maybe if I published it bit by bit it would motivate me to finish
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 14:36:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15051311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dropped_my_prussiant/pseuds/dropped_my_prussiant
Summary: “The Merfolk were cursed. Never able to venture out onto land without the threat of eventually turning into sand. Some would last years without falling apart, others mere seconds.” Ace had read out of a book.So what would happen if Luffy's path crossed with the very same creature?





	1. One.

**Author's Note:**

> As I said in the tags, I started writing this 4 years ago and it's just been sat in my drafts so! I'm gonna be posting the parts bit by bit in hopes that I get some motivation to finish it.  
> I'm just straight up copy and pasting the text so the fic hasn't been beta'ed. Apologies if its badly written.
> 
> Based off of the following prompt:  
> Person A is walking along the beach and comes across person B, who is a merfolk, lying on the sand, drying up, obviously hurt. When person A approaches, person B growls, but cannot otherwise defend themselves. Person A nurtures person B back to health and they become friends. You decide whether or not person A becomes a merfolk with them.

Sabo was busy working on a new book and Ace was helping out his boyfriend at the bird sanctuary so Luffy was left alone all day which resulted in him walking along the beach that was only just minutes away from their house.

It had been raining for hours last night so most of the sand was damp and the beach was nearly empty so he decided on wearing a hoody and jeans to keep himself warm. With his hands in his pockets, he traced the water’s edge where the waves broke and faded back over his bare feet.

He could call Zoro and Sanji to see if they wanted to grab a few drinks - not that Luffy liked the taste of alcohol but Nami was probably out shopping with Robin, Franky and Usopp were both working in the local garage, Chopper was at collage which only left Brook but unfortunately he was busy too working shifts at the music shop.

His hands shuffled around in his pocket for his phone and started dialling the number to Zoro’s mobile, placing it up to his ear once it started ringing.

He hadn’t noticed it at first but along the shore line was a heap of junk. Or that’s what he thought it was until it started moving.

Curiosity got the better of Luffy as he hung up the phone and subconsciously made his way over to the mysterious heap.

Upon closer inspection, he found that the heap was not junk, but in fact a male, humanoid figure with a distinctive looking fish tail that could only be described as having the pattern of a clown fish. But instead of the original orange, white and black, the scales of the tail were a pure onyx black with tints white outlining the gold stripes.

His eyes wondered up to the top half of its body where the tail merged into sandy, tanned skin. Dark markings were scattered all over its chest, arms and back but Luffy couldn’t tell clearly what they were of. His torso was well built with muscles that looked like they may have well been sculpted by the Gods themselves.

His attention was snapped away when the creature tried to lunge at him with a death defying snarl that caused Luffy to stagger back a bit.

 _“Merfolk have always looked down on humans because they pollute the seas and oceans. Very rare is it to see a mermaid on a beach because of this and they will attack if threatened.”_ So. Was this a merman?

It wasn’t until the creature had yelped out in pain that he noticed various metal poles jutting out of its tail, staining one side completely red with blood.

Luffy’s eyes widened in concern when the creature’s body went pale and limp. Panic arose in Luffy and he knelt down to examine the condition it was in.

Luckily it had only passed out. Probably due to being weak from the lack of water or the obvious pain of having two metal poles lodged in its lower half.

When they were little, Ace and Sabo told stories about these kinds of creatures with their top halves human and lower halves that of marine animals such as fish, sharks and even octopuses.

 _“The Merfolk were cursed. Never able to venture out onto land without the threat of eventually turning into sand. Some would last years without falling apart, others mere seconds.”_ Ace had read out of the book.

The tales said that the sand on the beaches were the remains of those creatures who had turned into sand after leaving the water. He was young so he didn’t know whether or not to believe it but it had always stuck in his mind every time they took a trip to the beach on weekends.

But still, they weren’t meant to be seen and he assumed that it would rather stay that way. Luffy ran home to grab Ace’s pop up tent, various towels and a winter coat before walking half way out onto the path. He stopped dead in his tracks and muttered,

“Buckets.”

He turned on his heels, half ran through the house and into the garden where he grabbed a collection of large different colored buckets. On the way back out he grabbed a few books from off the shelf and made his way back to the spot on the beach.


	2. Two.

Luckily the creature was still here and unconscious. The wind had picked up and the last few people who were on the beach earlier had packed up and left, leaving the location empty with only Luffy and the fish man there.

Luffy struggled to put up the tent against the wind but with a bit of coordination, he managed to succeed. He laid out multiple towels to form a soft surface on the ground before lifting the unconscious creature bridal style into the tent and laying him down. The feel texture of the body was dried up and sandy despite the appearance looking quite slick and still wet. Luffy just shook it off and crouched down beside it.

He opened one of the books and scanned pages and pages until he hit a paragraph that was of interest to him. He placed the book down and grabbed the largest bucket from outside and ran over to the water’s edge.

Luffy didn’t really like getting wet but for the sake of the creature, he proceeded to walk further into the water until his knees were completely swallowed up by the waves.

With one swift movement, the bucket was submerged and pulled out of the water with two hands. The teen grunted and staggered all the way back to the tent where he placed the bucket down inside and collapsed in exhaustion.

“You’re hard work, you know that?” He huffed to the unconscious fish man next to him.

The tent didn’t really have much space to put between them so they were forced together in close proximity. Luffy propped himself up on his elbow and studied the sea creature’s facial features closely.

From a distance away, the creature’s hair looked raven black but up close Luffy saw that it was actually a traditional royal blue colour.

However, despite having tinted blue hair, his other facial hair was slightly darker in colour, making it look as black as he previously thought it was.

Grey smudges lined the bottom of his eyes from corner to corner, like that of someone who hadn’t slept in weeks or had fallen asleep with eyeliner on.

Luffy thought back to when the creature had been startled by Luffy’s presence and remembered that its eye’s glowed the same shade of gold that decorated his tail.

After the tail’s pattern crossed his mind, his eyes fell down to where the poles were still lodged as a shallow frown of concern spread across his face. How was he going to get the poles out? And he had to do it before the man woke up otherwise there would be a great fuss in such a confined space.

Slowly shifting himself up, Luffy reached for the bucket and a towel and began pouring some water out onto the creature’s tail, washing away any dried blood. The teen was put on guard in case the other woke up and started struggling and with a tight yank, started to slide out one of the poles. He gently twisted his wrist to loosen the pole and as it was brought free, it made a sucking squelch sound.

Rich, red blood started pouring out little by little but was instantly soaked up by the towel Luffy had then placed over the first puncture. With the same force and motion, the second pole was removed and the towel was spread out a little more to soak up that puncture.

As the blood started to leak less and less, Luffy washed over the wounds with the remaining water to keep them clean. As the hours went by his mind occupied himself with the care of the other. After noticing that the holes were closing each time water was poured, Luffy would refill his bucket and wash the whole of the fish man’s body.

It had been hours and the holes had completely closed but still the creature hadn’t woken up. Luffy started to wonder if he was dead.

Panic filled the clueless teen as he knelt down to place his ear against the tattooed chest. It felt wet due to the water but surprisingly it felt warm. A faint heart beat could be heard but it was as if the creature was purring. The chest vibrated ever so vaguely and Luffy was slowly falling asleep when,

“What are you doing?”

The sudden sound startled Luffy as a stunned yelp escaped his lips.

“N-Nothing. I thought you were dead. I was just checking you weren’t.”

His heart beat was hammering away at his chest from the sudden fright but started thumping even heavier when he looked at the creature’s eyes. So he had remembered correctly. His whole conscience was drawn to the smoldering aura. The warm feeling was then cut off as the other closed his eyes and sighed.

An unexpected whine slipped from Luffy’s throat after being denied for longer.

“Why do you people do that?”

“Do what?” Luffy was taken back.

“Stare.”

He opened his eyes again, fully knowing what Luffy would do but the teen only stared for 2 seconds before forcing himself to look away to disprove what the other accused.

“Who wouldn’t…?” He muttered.

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know if you want me to post the continuation! ~


End file.
